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Interested? Great! Follow the links below to get more information just for you!
Starting Your Own Local Brain BeeThe International Brain Bee is a great opportunity for you and your institution to reach out to high school students in your community. Not only is it a great way to get students to learn about neuroscience, it is a lot of fun! We would like to thank all of our Brain Bee sponsors and coordinators for their contributions to our program, and invite new hosts to help us make the 2008 IBB Competition even bigger than the last!
The BasicsStarting a brain bee is not nearly as time-consuming or costly as you might think. A Local Brain Bee does not actually cost anything to run - all that you need is a location for the competition, a neuroscientist to judge the answers, and high school students. Each Local Brain Bee has a coordinator who is affiliated with a university, high school, museum, biotech company, or SFN Chapter. Local coordinators are given the flexibility to conduct their bee at any time or place, and in any way they feel is best for their situation. However, all brain bees are required to have a neuroscientist as a judge. (The IBB coordinators can help you find a judge if necessary.) All of the confidential questions for the competition will be provided to you by the IBB directors - simply e-mail us your mailing address and we will send them right away. Local coordinators are encouraged to inform the media of the Brain Bee event, since the media loves unique events like this one involving children, science, healthcare and competition.
The Cost of Organizing a Local Brain BeeA local coordinator should expect to spend a minimum of 18 hours on this project, but getting assistants to help you will obviously reduce the amount of time you have to spend. Coordinators may want to create flyers to be posted at local high schools, a program for the actual competition, and award certificates for the participants. The Local Brain Bees are grass roots efforts; as such the IBB cannot offer any financial support to these chapters. Most bees are supported by academic institutions, businesses, individuals, or their Society for Neuroscience chapter. Your Local Brain Bee can be a terminal event - winning competitors are not required to participate in their National Bees - but most local winners compete in the National Bees as well. If you intend to send your winner to these championships, you must provide your winner with funds for travel expenses and lodging at the National Bee.
How to Use the Confidential Questions and Answer PacketAll questions for the Local Brain Bees must come from material in the Society for Neuroscience's Publication Brain Facts. The only exception to this rule is for Local Bees occurring in countries where English is not commonly spoken. Local Bees in these countries may take their questions from the British Neuroscience Association's publication Neuroscience: the Science of the Brain, which can be found on the BNA's website. Coordinators may create their own questions from these two documents, or they may use the official set of questions provided by IBB director, Dr. Myslinski.
Our question packet consists of 466 questions with one word or one phrase answers. They are organized according to the different sections of the publication, and are ranked as easy, moderate, or difficult. This question packet can be provided only to the local coordinators (not their assistants), and is available by request. No copies should be made of the questions since they will be used at other Local Brain Bees worldwide, so the integrity of the document must be maintained at all times.
Interested? Great!We challenge you to start a Local Bee in your area! It is fun, easy and rewarding. Free support is provided by the Dana Alliance and the Society for Neuroscience. If you would like to speak with IBB director Norbert Myslinski about starting your own bee, please contact us!
© 2007 International Brain Bee. All Rights Reserved.
